Smart Government

I recently discussed cloud on a Government Matters TV program that aired May 2. LaVerne Council/Former CIO, Department of Veterans Affairs and National Managing Principal for Enterprise Technology Strategy and Innovation, Grant Thornton and I addressed these issues. To view the segment, please visit https://govmatters.tv/aws/

Cloud is a way to support many agency objectives. It can more cost effectively and securely extend datacenter capabilities such as computing and storage without building government-owned and government-operated datacenters. This helps stretch resources and makes support and maintenance less onerous for IT. In addition to reducing mission costs, cloud can improve services, such as ensuring that web based portals have access to newer functionalities faster and delivering better mission services…

IDC Government Insights observes that government agencies are at many different stages of Big Data maturity. A recent survey of 210 U.S. federal government respondents, conducted in October 2015, indicates that the majority, 68.3%, of government agencies surveyed have yet to establish and leverage Big Data capabilities and expertise at the enterprise level (i.e., managed maturity). To help organizations understand the underlying strengths and weaknesses of their Big Data capabilities and compare them with that of their government peers, we also measured maturity across the five key dimensions of the Big Data and Analytics MaturityScape.

Many government agencies have embarked on a Big Data quest, from deploying pilot projects to leveraging the information they already have for solving problems to honing their operational edge through data-driven decision making to even providing timely and critical information for other agencies with complementary missions. However most (68.3%) of the respondents indicated that their organizations were at the opportunistic and repeatable stage. These organizations have already had some defined…

IBM announced today that the U.S. Army selected IBM Hybrid Cloud to power the Logistics Support Activity (LOGSA) one of the biggest logistics systems in the U.S. federal government that provides on-time integrated logistics support of Army operations worldwide. LOGSA is home of the Logistics Information Warehouse (LIW), the Army’s official storehouse for collecting, storing, organizing and delivering logistics data. It provides critical logistics information capabilities through analytics tools and business intelligence solutions to acquire, manage, equip and sustain the materiel needs of the U.S. Army. LIW provides services to more than 65,000 users and 150 direct trading partners around the world.

By moving to a hybrid cloud, an on-premises private cloud database hosted on IBM infrastructure and managed by IBM, coupled with the offsite IBM SmartCloud for Government, the Army can quickly and securely deploy data analytics for improved performance, scale, security, and reliability. This initiative supports the Army's intentions of providing soldiers the best equipment available and keeping that equipment in top performance condition. Think of the Army field vehicles, helicopters, unmanned…

The U.S. Federal Government is using both tactics to fight the deadly Ebola virus. With over 5,000 infected and 1,000 deaths attributed to the Ebola virus, the Centers for Diseases Control (CDC)'s Emergency Operations Center in Atlanta has activated its highest level, maintaining 24/7 operations to coordinate the agency's efforts. CDC has been training workers on proper infection control and teaching them how to properly don Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). CDC is also conducting chain of transmission monitoring through contact tracing of all the people who come into close contact with sick patients.

Wearing head-to-toe protective covering, including respirators, is designed to prevent the spread of Ebola through contact with bodily fluids between patients and caregivers. Through chain of transmission monitoring of people who come into close contact with sick patients, analytics is making easier to find and track people who have been exposed to this virus. According to a recent article, CDC uses software to trace Ebola-carriers' contact with others - FedScoop, CDC uses Epi Info viral…

The current and past years have witnessed massive storms, earthquakes, unprecedented forest fires, emergencies, and other urgent situations. Hurricane Sandy, an event that many scientists believe is attributable to climate change that may continue to impact the severity of storms, was an eye opener for many government agencies. Although the public received warnings and prepared days before the storm’s destruction, the aftermath created power outages impacting communications, availability of potable water and gasoline, and pervasive need for food, warm clothing, and shelter. Successful response and recovery operations require the ability to shift services from multiple agencies into a high gear while maintaining tight control of all resources, rapid coordination of different sectors, and the communication of critical information before, during, and after the emergency. Frequently, it's after an emergency that federal state and local agencies discover that they require expansive sharing of information, collaboration, and coordination of services to recover, rebuild, and restore communities to normalcy.

A recent article, HUD official coordinated Hurricane Sandy recovery aid - The Washington Post highlights the "after emergency " coordination of federal agencies through the establishment of a Hurricane Sandy task force that coordinated 23 federal agencies and offices as well as collaborated with state, local and nonprofit agencies in dispensing the nearly $50 billion appropriated by Congress. Marion Mollegen McFadden, chief operating officer, and later acting executive director of the task…

Big Data may be an overhyped buzz word today, with recent provocative headlines about Big Data from advancing human Genome research to find specific markers for cancer or genetic diseases, to Big Data analytics raising big privacy questions, as well as the problems of our digital footprint haunting us forever. However one recent headline gave me pause, as it asked the hypothetical question of whether Big Data could have prevented the recent Fort Hood shootings.

Many government entities are increasingly using Big Data analytics for decision making and solving some of their toughest problems. One such Big Data program was started with seed funding from DOD's Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), a project that analyzes communications from Veterans who have opted in. The purpose of this program, theDurkheim Project, named after Emile Durkheim, a sociologist whose 1897 publication of "Suicide" provided an early text analysis for suicide risk,…

Federal agencies are taking some unwarranted risks in their Big Data projects. These risks include not managing Big Data strategy at the enterprise level, a lack of collaboration, communication and coordination with various parts of an agency, a lack of an information management process, and a lack of even such intuitive technologies as providing apps for accessing and analyzing data on mobile devices.

As you watched the news or read the headlines about the capture of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who was apprehended in Mazatlán, Sinaloa last Saturday, alleged to have contributed to the death and destruction of millions through drug addiction, violence, and corruption, your first thoughts may not have been "that's the result of our government investing in Big Data technologies." Had you made this connection, you would be right according to a recent article in Nextgov.com.

The U.S. Treasury is authorized to collect, analyze, and disseminate financial and other information concerning illicit financing and national security threats under a program managed by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network bureau (FinCEN). The FinCEN program has been undergoing modernization efforts to improve data quality and integrity, develop a reliable information management and analysis framework so that filers and users have better tools to capture data, improve analytical…

The discussion about Government IT procurement reform has heated up. Several legislative proposals are grabbing headlines for recommended government structural changes. While these recommended changes may prevent future high profile IT projects from going amiss, basic block and tackling within agencies to manage their IT investment portfolio is required. That, coupled with innovation, supported by a culture of acceptable risks, may provide the best return on government IT investment.

E-Commerce Times cites a bill sponsored jointly by Senator Tom Udall, D-New Mexico, and Senator Jerry Moran, R-Kansas that was introduced in early January Healthcare Fiasco Energizes Federal IT Reform Efforts | Government | E-Commerce Times. The Udall-Moran bill includes several elements of a similar bill proposed by Representative Darrell Issa, R-California, in the House last year. The House bill is more comprehensive and deals with a broader range of IT procurement issues. The Issa proposal,…

Katherine Archuleta, the President's nominee to lead the Office of Personnel Management, has expressed a focus on IT, new IT leadership, leveraging agency deep domain expertise, as well as seeking advice from experts from government and the private sector. This is a great recipe for effecting change at this agency, bringing velocity to the slowed momentum of retirement claims processing, and stepping up to the new challenge of administering multiple state health plans as a result of the passage of the Affordable Care Act.